It has always amused me why Microsoft considers open source software to be such a huge threat to them, requiring propaganda campaigns like that one, while at the same time emphasizing how open source software (eg. Linux itself) has an extremely marginal market share (which it does; eg. Linux has a market share of less than 3%) and how Microsoft products dominate the market (which they do; eg. Windows XP and newer have a market share of over 90%).
This is rather curious (and strange) considering that eg. MacOS X has a larger market share than Linux, yet you seldom see Microsoft making propaganda campaigns against it.
As for that video in question, I also like how it presents a false dichotomy: As if MS Office and OpenOffice were the only two alternatives.
It has always amused me why Microsoft considers open source software to be such a huge threat to them, requiring propaganda campaigns like that one, while at the same time emphasizing how open source software (eg. Linux itself) has an extremely marginal market share (which it does; eg. Linux has a market share of less than 3%) and how Microsoft products dominate the market (which they do; eg. Windows XP and newer have a market share of over 90%).
Well, why would Microsoft make an ad campaign nowadays claiming that Word is better than WordPerfect? WordPerfect is just another proprietary piece of software people have to buy and need support contracts for. Switching from Word to WordPerfect for reasons having to do with cost is a hard sell and I doubt Microsoft worries about that scenario. Open source software, on the other hand, on the surface offers a very compelling value proposition. It's free! Stop paying for software and just pay for the support contracts! Save money! It does everything Office can do!
If we assume they must have some form of advertising, it makes sense for that advertising to address what they think are some of the common misconceptions that lead people to believe OpenOffice, for example, is both as good as and more cost effective than Office. People who don't know any better also tend to group all open source software together under the same umbrella, so Microsoft really only needs to attack the most popular open source office package, and it's like attacking them all.
Warp wrote:
This is rather curious (and strange) considering that eg. MacOS X has a larger market share than Linux, yet you seldom see Microsoft making propaganda campaigns against it.
For a long time Apple was essentially a hardware vendor that happened to roll a lot of its own software. Microsoft had no interest in actually selling PCs, so Apple wasn't really a competitor. Also, Microsoft sells a lot of software for Macs. Bigger also, Apple has a very good image and better PR. Apple can get away with their condescending "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads for various reasons. Microsoft would get crucified if they tried to run a direct comparison ad campaign like that directed at Apple. Finally, I'm guessing Apple has a smaller market share in the corporate environment than Linux does.
Warp wrote:
As for that video in question, I also like how it presents a false dichotomy: As if MS Office and OpenOffice were the only two alternatives.
You're saying it's a false dichotomy because in reality it's a unichotomy, right? That is, MS Office is the only office package worth using. BOOM!
Don't know why people would use WordPerfect. I tried it, I hate it. Plus if people wanted to switch, from one to the other (either direction), I say GOOD LUCK. Conversion from Office to OpenOffice (or vice versa) is a hell of a lot less messy hen from Word to WordPerfect (or vice versa). NOTHING converts right between the two.
Then there's Lotus, but that thing is a bigger piece of crap...especially 1-2-3. Working with that was painful.
I think she's cute
Edit: To me the only things that are uncanny about her are her speech module and the fact that she probably can't "learn" as well as a real human. Once those are fixed, I'd love to hang out with her. ^^
She'd be way too popular though and she probably wouldn't be interested at all in talking to a loser like me. *sigh*
It was undoubtedly made to look cute, but it's still firmly in the uncanny valley.
Actually, several of the pauses reminded me of Data from Star Trek, which I found amusing.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
that robot is asking for it
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
And now for something completely different and unreasonably random beyond comprehenshion:
Link to video
Also, Why does that robot's mouth open up like a fish?
This video is pretty old but I don't think it was posted before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhHAuMep748
I would like to hear Baxter's opinion about it, since it's obviously not assisted, yet it looks awesome, at least to my noob eyes.
